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"I'll be positioned in the same office by 2027," Starmer stated, noting that if the interview was successful, he might invite us into Downing Street for a follow-up talk next year.

There is never truly downtime for leaders. Shortly before our chat started, Sir Keir had been in calls with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky and trying to understand what on earth had occurred in Venezuela, where his close political chum, US President Donald Trump, had just launched a strike against and detained its leader, Nicolás Maduro.

By the time our lengthy talk, which was far more extended than typical, had finished, Maduro had been charged in New York.

A Refresh for the New Year

With the year starts, Starmer seems to have had something of a reboot. Perhaps even just a bit of relaxation with the family at Chequers, the prime minister's rural getaway.

That certainly appeared to have resulted in better spirits than at the difficult tail end of 2025, a dreadful political year for him.

But are he and his supporters kidding themselves if they reckon his standing are about to get better?

Leadership Questions

The harsh truth for the prime minister is that many of his colleagues believe he's not very good at his job. Several of them would rather take a risk and get him out sooner rather than later.

However Starmer was rejecting the idea when we spoke on Saturday morning.

Multiple times he insisted he'd be "evaluated at the poll", maintaining no one would take his term from him – despite the fact that the best chance of halting Nigel Farage and Reform UK entering No 10 might be for Labour to switch leader.

"We are in the battle of our generation and I aim to lead us," he said.

The May Elections

The issue for the PM is that he will be assessed far sooner than then – in a major set of elections in May throughout the UK. He attempted to protest, perhaps excessively, that they are about who runs councils, and who runs the governments in Holyrood or Cardiff – and not a verdict on Westminster.

Accurate – up to a point. But although he may be reluctant to acknowledge it, No 10 will be held accountable by those elections too.

This did not stop Sir Keir suggesting that there were no situation under which he would step down, even if a his MPs contested his leadership for the job, if those elections be disastrous for Labour.

Predicting a Turnaround

He tried to account for his unpopularity by saying the public was reasonably eager for things to change. He tried to convince me, and the nation, that 2026 would be a change.

The economic situation would improve despite rising unemployment, he claimed, when strategies the administration put in place during their first turbulent year began to bear fruit.

• He vowed to close asylum hotels ahead of the current deadline of 2029, but he wouldn't set a new date on that.
• He added too, with the qualification that it was not a foregone conclusion, that a settlement in Ukraine felt closer now than at any point since Russia's major invasion.
• He stated for the first time that Western allies were now discussing how to coordinate US and European forces to offer security for Ukraine – to safeguard a possible peace.

His core argument is that soon the country will "turn the corner".

Familiar Arguments

The prime minister may have spoken with more energy than I've seen from him for a some time – calmer, maybe, with more time to talk.

However, in spite of facing calls from within his own party for a bolder approach, with greater political vision, more dynamism, more pace and more immediacy, his points were familiar ones.

Given that he is in such significant political trouble, should he consider a change of tack?

No government, and especially not one that has been struggling in the polls for many months, gets everything its as planned.

The Prime Minister's problems are not only because government is challenging, but because he and his team have faltered, even in the recent past.

Regrets and Risks

The prime minister admitted that he was sorry for saying he was "happy" to welcome back the Egyptian-British activist Alaa Abd El Fattah to the UK after an outcry when statements he'd made in the past – including calls for Zionists and police to be killed – surfaced.

Sir Keir blamed "the process" for failing to identify what the activist had said before – a fancier way of saying not my fault.

And he is courting clear political dangers as the year progresses. His close relationship with the US president acquires a new complication after Trump's military action on Venezuela.

Having interviewed Sir Keir Starmer, a former human rights lawyer who opposed the war in Iraq, over his career, the idea he would be at ease with these events seems unlikely.

International Law and Brexit

He told me he was a "lifelong champion of international law" but the public "simply do not have the complete details at the moment".

Opponents demanded denounce it before we spoke. And the government is expected to face increased demands to give an definitive view in Parliament in the next few days.

There has also consistently been bubbling tension in the Labour party to revisit some of the consequences of Brexit.

Sir Keir denies he's doing that, but his new more concrete plan to move closer with the EU's single market – the vast economic European trading zone – will likely elicit protests that he is going back on his pledge never to try to undo the choices that flowed from Brexit.

A decision to integrate into more of the single market will please many on his side of the party, but it is prime ammunition for Reform and the Conservatives to